India lost their second consecutive World Test Championship Final, this time to Australia at The Oval by 209 runs. Senior batsman Ajinkya Rahane was India’s best player in the game.
Coming back into the Test side after a gap of more than a year, Ajinkya Rahane scored a terrific knock of 89 runs in the first innings that helped India avoid the follow-on and drag the match further. In the second innings, Rahane scored 46 runs, and was the second-highest scorer of the innings for India, after Virat Kohli‘s 49.
It would be fair to assume that with his performances in the WTC Final 2023, Ajinkya Rahane has extended his Test career and is likely to be selected for India’s next Test series in West Indies.
Indian players were fined 100 percent of their match fees as a penalty for slow over rate in the World Test Championship Final. India were found 5 overs behind, after adding all considerations. According to ICC rules over fining 20 percent of match fees for each over a team falls behind, all Indian players were fined 100 percent of their match fees.
Further, interestingly, the best player of Team India in the World Test Championship Final, Ajinkya Rahane, is not part of BCCI’s current central contracts. Last year, after being dropped from the Test team, Rahane was also excluded from the central contract list by BCCI and currently, he doesn’t hold any contract with the board. So, Rahane eventually wouldn’t virtually be paid for the his playing in the WTC Final.
Meanwhile, the ICC issued additional charges over Shubman Gill’s social media activity in regard to the third umpire’s call of ruling him out for a contentious catch by Green in India’s second innings. For this, Shubman Gill has been penalized 15% of his match fees. In all, thus, the India opener has effectively incurred 115% of match fees in fines.